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Monday, 23 February 2015

Evolutionary Maths

by Jack Dry

Maths
in nature seems slightlyunnaturalto
me. Shouldn’t nature be free from the same maths which has been used to design
carbon dioxide belching factories, noisy cars and nuclear bombs? So, when I
first learnt that there was maths ingrained in nature, it confirmed my hunch
that maths really was everywhere.

Cicadas
are insects. More specifically they are locust-like insects which have red eyes
and are awooden browncolour.
Their colouring is clever since it allows them to blend into the trees which
they peacefully sit on. This makes it more difficult for predators to see them
and so they are eaten less often. Coincidentally, this is why a large
proportion of insects are darker,tree-like, colours. This is called anadaptation.An adaptation is where
an organism has changed over time to become more suitable for the environment
in which it lives. Adaptations are a product of natural selection, the
phenomenon which Darwin coined. Although their colouring is a clever
adaptation, it’s by far their finest.

Before
explaining the genius behind the cicada’s development cycle, it is necessary to
clarify what a prime number is. A prime number is a number which is only
divisible by itself and one. Take the number 5, for example. In making a rectangle
with five beads the only way it is possible is if they were arranged into a
straight line. This is a trait of prime numbers. If you had six beads, however,
a rectangle could be made from two columns of 3 next to each otherora straight line of six
beads. Therefore the number six is not a prime number.

Now
I shall act as Gauss’ lens and convey the mathematical genius of the cicadas.
All organisms have a period in which they develop. During this period, very few
of the organisms inhabit their typical environment, if any at all. They
are undergoing a period of development where they are preparing to swarm the
lands in vast numbers, albeit for a very short period of time. The cicada’s
period of development is a rather lengthy seventeen years. All insects also have predators.
The cicada’s predator is typically the aptly namedcicada killer wasp.The wasp’s period of
development is four years. This means that only every 68 years will the wasps and
cicadas occupy the same environment. Only every 68 years will the cicadas be
killed by the wasps. If the cicada’s period of development was two years less - 16 years - the cicadas would be eaten by the wasps every time they developed. If
this were the case then the cicadas would quickly become extinct. In this way
the cicadas are able to survive and reproduce more successfully with a prime
number period of development-the aim of all organisms.

The
mathematics in evolution would remain obliquely hidden behind the scenes had it
not been for a small Brazilian research group. It is likely that there are
millions of other phenomenon with maths ingrained in it, like in this example,
which is why, if we want to understand our world better, we have to make a huge
effort to promoting the study of mathematics.